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Paska reaches milestone in win over Varsity Blues

By Ryan Bacic

Nov 29, 2017

TORONTO – It was a tale of two halves on Wednesday night at the Goldring Centre, as the Ryerson Rams took down the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 71-63 in a come from behind victory, which saw all-star forward Sofia Paska (Etobicoke, Ont.) record her 1,000th point as a member of the women’s basketball program.

The Blues came out surging in the first half, having no trouble connecting offensively. Throughout the entirety of the first two quarters of action, the Varsity Blues were able to connect on fifty-five percent of all field-goal attempts, and sixty-percent of all three-point attempts. Leading the scoreboard in the first half for the home team, and providing endless amounts of troubles for the visiting Rams in the process, was junior guard Keyira Parkes (Scarborough, Ont.) who tallied 12 points off of four three-pointers.

The Blues were furthered assisted by a stellar post performance, as their forwards assisted in grabbing twenty rebounds in the first half, while only allowing the Rams to grab sixteen of their own.

In contrast, the Rams found it to be a little more difficult to get their momentum going as the game began. While it took Paska less than three minutes to find her second bucket on the night to make her a member of the 1,000 point club, it took the rest of the team a little longer to find their shooting grove. Throughout the first half of action, the collective Rams team only connected on thirty-six percent of all field-goal attempts, including being only one-for-four from beyond the arc.

Freshman guard Marin Scotten (Ottawa, Ont.) lead the way offensively for the Rams in the first half with eight points. Scotten would go on to record nineteen points during the evening, a feat which ties her career-best.

Heading into the locker room, the Varsity Blues lead the Rams 40-29, putting pressure on the visiting team to turn things around if they wanted to secure a victory on the evening.

In comparison to the first, the second half of play saw the Rams surge both offensively and defensively, in a manner that would prove to be too much for a Blues line-up that seemed to run out of gas. Of special concern to the home team however, was the way in which the near unstoppable force that is the Rams Sofia Paska came alive throughout the final two quarters of play.

Across the last twenty-minutes of play, Paska would go on to drop seventeen points and collect ten rebounds, proving herself to be a vital component to the Rams victory on the evening.

Collectively, the Rams would connect on nearly forty-four percent of all field-goal attempts, a significant improvement over their first half performance.

In comparison to this surge by the visiting team, the hosting Varsity Blues seemed to run into some trouble in maintaining the intensity they played with in the first half. The Blues were only able to connect on ten field-goal attempts throughout the entire second half, and their three-point percentage decreased from 60% to 18%. With twelve points of her own, Blues senior forward Rahshida Atkinson (Scarborough, Ont.) attempted to keep her team in the contest, but it simply wasn’t enough.

The Rams would go on to outscore the Blues 42-23 throughout the second half of the contest, and eventually take the game by a score of 71-63.

The Rams will be back in action on Saturday, December 2, as they take on the visiting Lakehead Thunderwolves at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. Fans are encouraged to come out and support the Rams, but for those who cannot make it, the game will be streamed live on OUA.tv and updates can be found by following the Ryerson Rams on twitter @ryersonrams.